National Vaccine Information Center: Public Hearings on Measles
Outbreaks and Vaccine Laws Provide Opportunities for Americans to Voice
Concerns

February 25, 2019 07:30 AM Eastern Standard Time

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The non-profit charity National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is
urging Americans to attend state legislative and U.S. congressional
hearings focused on measles
outbreaks in the U.S. and state vaccine laws to voice concerns to
their elected representatives. This month, legislatures in Arizona,
Washington and other states held public hearings on proposed changes to
vaccine laws and there are hearings scheduled in Congress on Feb.
27 and Mar.
5, 2019.

NVIC reports
that this year more than 100 vaccine-related bills have been introduced
in 30 states proposing to expand, restrict or eliminate vaccine informed
consent rights. NVIC is supporting 50 of the bills, including bills to
add or protect personal belief vaccine exemptions.

“A number of states are proposing bills to eliminate vaccine exemptions
while others are proposing to expand them,” said NVIC Co-founder and
President Barbara
Loe Fisher. “The state and federal public hearings being held this
year are an opportunity for Americans to communicate with their
legislators about this important parental rights and civil liberty
issue.”

The federal government licenses vaccines, makes vaccine use
recommendations and enacts vaccination requirements for persons crossing
U.S. borders, while state governments enact mandatory
vaccination laws for residents of states, including for children
attending school. In 1905, the U.S.
Supreme Court affirmed the constitutional authority of state
governments to mandate vaccines but warned that vaccine laws must be
“limited in their application as not to lead to injustice, oppression,
or an absurd consequence” and become “cruel and inhuman to the last
degree.” There are few federally
approved contraindications to vaccination and most adverse health
conditions and vaccine reactions do not qualify for a medical exemption
to vaccination under federal guidelines.

NVIC advocates for public
participation in vaccine policy and law making. On Feb. 14, 2019,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb made a public
statement warning state legislators that if they do not tighten
vaccine exemptions in “lax laws,” then the federal government will take
action. NVIC’s President responded, “The constitutional authority to
mandate vaccinations belongs to the states. The FDA Commissioner heading
a federal agency legally responsible for regulating the safety and
effectiveness of vaccine products sold by drug companies should not be
threatening state legislators with federal intervention if they don’t
restrict or remove exemptions in vaccine laws,” said Loe Fisher.

In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that FDA licensed vaccines are
“unavoidably unsafe” and effectively granted vaccine manufacturers a full
liability shield, even when there was evidence a company could have
made a vaccine safer. More than $4
billion has been awarded to children and adults harmed by federally
recommended vaccines since 1988 but two out of three petitioners filing
injury claims in the VICP are denied compensation.

For the past two decades, NVIC has been critical of federal agency
implementation of the 1986 Act’s vaccine safety, research and vaccine
injury compensation provisions. In 1999
and 2002,
congressional oversight hearings were held on operation of the VICP, and
the General
Accountability Office (GAO) issued an investigative report in 2014
pointing out continuing problems with the VICP.

“The integrity of the original law has been seriously compromised and no
substantive action has been taken by Congress to repair damage done to
the 1986 Act by eroding amendments
and federal
agency rule making,” said NVIC Co-founder and Vice President Kathi
Williams. “Part of the current focus by Congress on disease control and
vaccine laws should include hearings to hold the Department of Health
and Department of Justice accountable for betraying the trust of parents
obeying laws to vaccinate their children.”

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) gives incentivizing
grants to states to achieve high vaccination rates among children
with federally recommended vaccines. States with higher vaccination
rates receive “bonus” funding awards and states with lower rates may
receive lower grant amounts. The CDC's
recommended childhood vaccination schedule currently is 69 doses of
16 vaccines given between the day of birth and age 18 with 50 doses
given before age six.

The National Vaccine Information Center is the largest and oldest
non-profit organization in the U.S. dedicated to preventing vaccine
injuries and deaths through public education. Although NVIC does not
make vaccine use recommendations, the organization supports the ethical
principle of informed consent to medical risk taking and inclusion of
flexible medical, religious and conscientious belief vaccine exemptions
in public health policies and laws.